Moo Business Cards

My latest business cards arrived from Moo the other day, and this time round I thought I'd try their glossy finish. As soon as I opened the box, I was impressed with the quality of the new cards. The card stock is nice and thick and they certainly live up to their glossy title! The black box's that the regular size cards come in are very classy and look great sitting on a desk!

As these cards are my own design and include a brand new logo as part of a re-branding, I ordered a small amount of cards to make sure everything is where it should be (I've learned the hard way in the past). I'll be ordering more now that I've checked these ones.

As you can see from above, I have both the regular size business cards and the Moo Mini's. I keep the Moo Mini's on one of their keyring holders so I always have them with me. The regular size cards are mostly in my camera bags and in my car.

I've always found the quality from Moo to be very good, but it looks like they've upped their game even more with this latest batch.

The Digital Contact Sheet :: Episode 1

Welcome to episode 1 of The Digital Contact Sheet. I explained yesterday what the aim of this series was, but if you missed it, click here. I posted this photo (below) on my street photography blog 35mmStreet last summer and I thought it would be a good example to get started. All these shots were taken with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and a 35mm f1.4, 125th sec, f3.6. ISO was set to auto and moved between 400 and 640. I don't recommend using Auto ISO with the X-Pro1 or X-E1 at the moment, due to the lack of a minimum shutter speed in Aperture Priority and the lack of Exposure Compensation in Manual Mode. But on this overcast day, the lighting was flat and Auto ISO done a good job.

• Image 1 (below, top left) I spotted this Chinese man from quite a distance away. I was hoping this wasn't going to be the only shot I'd get, but it's important to fire one off as soon as you can, just in case! But if this had been the only frame I'd got, it might still have been usable in black and white.

• Image 2 (below, top right) The woman walks into my frame and the man's eyes are half shut. This one is a reject and will never be used, but I'm now in position. My focus point was already set to the left of my frame as I am walking on the left side of the street beside the kerb (road side), so everyone is passing or coming toward me on the left.
• 
• Image 3 (above, bottom left) I took this shot and thought it was the one I was after, but as he hadn't even noticed me (thanks to the black X-Pro1 and my invisibility cloak :o), I kept the camera to my eye and went for another.
• Image 4 (above, bottom right) Click, and number 4 is even better, but I'll go for another.

Image 5 (above) The 35mm f1.4 has a lag when focusing (18mm f2 is much faster), but in this case the delay between me pressing the shutter and the camera grabbing the shot, actually helped and got me something very unexpected. I knew I had got the best shot as soon as I heard the click, but when the LCD popped into the viewfinder for the preview, I knew I was done and walked on. Five frames taken and the subject still hadn't even noticed me.

Post Processing (top of this post) All shots from this days shoot were imported into Lightroom 4 and I applied my Fuji preset to all of them, which sets Contrast to +25 and Clarity to +15. That's always my starting point with the X cameras.  I hit P for pick on shot 4 & 5 and then sent them over to Silver Efex Pro 2. As with all my street photography shots, it's one click and I'm done! I have made three versions of my own preset, one under-exposed by a stop, one over-exposed by a stop and one in the middle. I can see by the previews in the left side of Silver Efex Pro 2 which one is right for the photo and I click it and hit save to send it back into Lightroom. Job done! I only wish all my post processing was as quick as my street photography shots.

So thats it for episode one! I hope it's been of interest to at least a few of you? I'd really appreciate a bit of feedback on this series so I can tell if I'm on the right track. If you have the time, please leave a comment down below with your thoughts on The Digital Contact Sheet?

My Bag Is Featured On Japan Camera Hunter

My Street and Documentary camera bag is featured on Japan Camera Hunter's 'In Your Bag' feature. I'm number 390 in this long running feature. You'll find a list of what's inside my bag, plus a bit of information too. Click here to see my bag Japan Camera hunter, AKA Bellamy Hunt is the man to contact if you're looking for quality cameras and equipment. Bellamy sources great gear from in Japan (where he's based) and ships it all over the world. Looking for a Leica M2? Bellamy's your man.

The Digital Contact Sheet :: A New Series

EPISODE 1 COMING TOMORROW

The idea behind The Digital Contact Sheet is to show a sequence of photos and explain why one was chosen over another or why one works and another doesn't. It could be a street shot, a portrait, documentary, wedding, landscape, basically anything under the sun. The point is to show what comes before or after the money shot! I'll also show the difference between shots that are straight out of camera and ones that are edited in Lightroom, Photoshop or Silver Efex Pro. It's a warts and all type of thing and I hope it will help or inspire anyone out there that doubts their abilities as a photographer or think that their photos aren't good enough. Maybe you need to take more, maybe you need to slow down and wait for the right shot and therefore take less photos? Hopefully there will be something in this series that will help another photographer in some way.

I'm not sure how this feature is going to work out! I might run it a few times, or maybe it will be an ongoing thing, I really don't know.... it's up to you. I'll post the first Digital Contact Sheet tomorrow. I just hope I'll have the words to describe what I need to, and make this a worthwhile feature for the readers of this blog. But I'll give it a try and hopefully some of you will get something out of it???

A Mute Reminder :: New Story On The Kage Collective

I have a new story on The Kage Collective website today. I say new, but it was actually shot back in November at the remembrance day parade in Glasgow, Scotland. As you can imagine, it was an emotional day for everyone involved, but especially for those who had lost friends and family in any of the conflicts around the world.

Please take a few minutes to have a look at A Mute Reminder and if you feel like leaving a comment on the Kage site, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story. A Mute Reminder was shot with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 & X-E1.

The S Factor :: Fujifilm X100s

New from Fuji is the X100s, an update to the original X model. Fujifilm has done the opposite of what a lot of camera manufactures do by just giving the camera an S rather than naming it the X200. How many times do we see new models coming out with very minimal improvements? With the X100s, it looks like there has been a huge leap in the technology inside the camera, but very little on the outside. I'm really glad it's that way round as the the camera looks stunning!

Here are some of the new features:

• 16.3 million pixels APS-C X-Trans CMOS II sensor
• EXR Processor II
• Hybrid Viewfinder (OVF / EVF)
• FUJINON 23mm F2 lens
• Intelligent Hybrid AF (with the world’s fastest AF speed of 0.08 secs
• Start-up time of 0.5 secs
• Shutter time lag of 0.01 secs
• Shooting interval of 0.5 secs
• High-contrast and wide viewing-angle 2.8-inch Premium Clear LCD (460K dots)
• Super Intelligent Flash
• Burst shooting rate of up to 6 frames per second at full resolution (max. 29 frames)
• Focus Peak Highlight function
• Digital Split Image display
• Artistic filters
• Full HD movie recording (60fps / 30fps)

It's nice to see the old split screen focussing making a comeback. I have a similar thing in my Olympus OM2-n, but with a horizontal line, rather than vertical. The X100s looks like a cross between that and a rangefinder patch in the centre of the screen. I'm looking forward to trying it out. The X100s will also have the fastest focusing in it's class.

Let's hope we get an update to the X100 firmware to get an updated menu and to add a Q button function to the Raw button. While I'm on the subject of firmware, we really need a minimum shutter speed added to the Auto ISO in the X-Pro1 and X-E1. This should be a Fuji priority!